School-Profession Link Could Aid in Recruiting New CPAs

Accountants ranked last among 17 professions that had “very great prestige,” according to a recent survey of 1,000 adults by the Harris Poll—trailing lawyers, police officers and union leaders.

Has the CPA profession done that bad a job of projecting our public image? The answer is yes!

It is no wonder we are unable to attract not only the “best and brightest” students to our profession but even the marginal candidates, and we now face one of the greatest challenges ever placed before us. The decline in accounting students has been well publicized in the Taylor Student and Academic Research Study (commissioned by the American Institute of CPAs last year) and in a number of related articles. The trends are alarming, to say the least, and the articles are replete with a myriad of reasons for this dramatic decline. It is a fact of life that haunts the accounting departments of our universities and colleges and the professional accounting firms and other business organizations that must continue to fuel their pipeline with new recruits to survive.

The profession is concerned about the decrease in the applicant pool, and is now recruiting more aggressively at more colleges to satisfy firms’ growing demand for replacement of retirees and to address the increased demand of clients. The Higher Education Committee of the New York State Society of CPAs has discussed establishing a closer link between professional firms and their local colleges, universities and high schools to address this major area of concern.

The accounting department at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., where I am a professor, has enjoyed a very successful long-term relationship with the firms and businesses in its vicinity. This relationship has served our mutual interests well. The following are steps and events other accounting departments might want to consider to develop stronger ties with their local businesses and firms:

• Internship Program. Professional firms and companies actively seek our students for various types of internships. Some of the firms have begun to offer summer internships to juniors, which frequently lead to offers of a full-time job after graduation.
• Practitioners’ Night. An annual dinner meeting is held between practitioners and students to offer an opportunity to meet in an informal atmosphere and discuss various issues relating to the profession.
• Advisory Board. We have an advisory board with whom we meet once each semester. The board is comprised of various members of local professional firms and businesses. We consider them to be a very valuable tool, particularly when it comes to curriculum changes to meet current and projected employer needs. Together, we give a lot of consideration to what can be done to attract candidates to the accounting profession, particularly enrolled students who are still deciding on a major field of study.
• Faculty Consulting. Several of our accounting faculty have consulting positions with local firms, particularly in the tax field. This obviously provides the firm with an excellent first- hand contact at the university, and has led to the employment of several students on both a part-time and full-time basis. Many faculty members have also conducted seminars at various firms on current professional issues.
• Presentations. Many of the firms provide speakers for programs held by the university’s Accounting Society and Accounting Honors groups.
• Office Visits. We have an annual program with various businesses to have our students visit their offices for a first-hand experience in an actual work environment. These visits are often combined with some form of formal presentation.
• Newsletters. Several firms provide the faculty with current newsletters and other mailings.
• Scholarships and Awards. Several of the professional societies offer awards to our students, and we are currently considering a firm sponsorship of a manuscript award, as the need to improve student communication skills is a continuing challenge.